...Running alongside Deena Kastor, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, Samuelson finished the 20th Beach to Beacon 10-kilometer race in 39 minutes, 19 seconds, fast enough for a U.S. record in her division.

At 60, Samuelson didn’t join the first wave of elite runners. Instead, she and Kastor ran with a later group.

After completing the race, Samuelson smiled when she noticed that race organizers had unfurled a banner with her image from the Portland Head Light, the famous lighthouse. “Whenever you can celebrate in your hometown, that takes the cake,” she said before the race.

The Maine native won the Boston Marathon in 1979 and went on to win it again in 1983. She took gold in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, the first time the marathon event was open to women.

'Joan's Race' takes on new significance at 20th Beach to BeaconJoan Benoit Samuelson runs faster than an age-group record on a day when Kenyans Stephen Kosgei Kibet and Mary Keitany win the men's and women's races.

...The USA Track & Field website lists the 60-plus women’s record as 39:24, by Christine Kennedy in 2015 in Dedham, Massachusetts.

There was some confusion about whether Samuelson’s time will be certified as a U.S. age group record because Beach to Beacon is a point-to-point course, thus susceptible to assistance from wind. What little breeze there was Saturday morning seemed come off the ocean more as headwind than tailwind. And there is precedent: Mbarak Hussein set the USATF men’s 45-49 record of 29:55 at the 2010 Beach to Beacon.

“All in all, I think it was a great way to celebrate the 20th,” Samuelson said. “It didn’t rain. The sun would have been nice, but you know, it’s amazing in 20 years we have not had a major rainstorm and that we’ve kept the health of the event intact, as far as not having lost anybody along the course.”

“With a race in August, that’s always my primary concern. So kudos to our medical team and kudos to our volunteers and our sponsors. I think there a lot of happy runners and spectators.”

Stephen Kibet edges Ben True to regain men’s title at Beach to BeaconKenya's Stephen Kosgei Kibet, the 2015 champion, finishes one second ahead of last year's winner, North Yarmouth native Ben True.

...Barsoton may have been fooled, but not Kibet. He surged into the lead and held off True by one second to win for the second time in three years, in 27 minutes, 55 seconds.

“I just screwed myself over,” True said with a self-deprecating laugh. “I was really hoping that I could bide my time to come around the (final) corner and get a jump on him, but he just kept steadily picking it up, picking it up, picking it up, and I had nothing there to try and get around him.”

Both men earned $10,000 for their morning’s work, first prize for Kibet, 30, and second overall ($5,000) and first American ($5,000) for True, who spent much of July in Europe running shorter races on the track.

Mary Keitany kills it again in Beach to Beacon women’s raceComing off a world marathon record, Mary Keitany of Kenya breaks her own course record.

...“I broke it? Oh, wow. I did not know this. For me, I just came to win,” said Keitany, a 5-foot-2 mother of two.

“She’s small and looks all cute but she’s just like a killer out there,” said the top American, Shalane Flanagan, who finished fourth overall. “You see her and think, ‘Oh, look at that nice lady, and then you get out on the road with her and she’s just brutal. But it’s fun. She elevates everyone’s running.”

Keitany, 35, earned $10,000 for the victory plus a $2,500 bonus for the course record.

That’s what crossed Jesse Orach’s mind when he tried to stand up at the finish line of the Beach to Beacon 10K in sight Saturday morning. The 23-year-old Gorham native was leading the field of Maine runners when he collapsed from heat stroke.

“It kind of seemed like it was over for me,” said Orach, who finished first among Maine men in last year’s race. “Then, I felt someone pick me up.”

Robert Gomez, Orach’s top competitor from Maine, helped him to his feet. Gomez, 34, of Windham held Orach up as they ran together to the finish line, and Gomez gave him a nudge over the line. Both men completed the 6.2-mile course in 31 minutes, 31 seconds.

Beach to Beacon notebook: Wheelchair field surges from three to 10American Krige Schabort wins the men's race and Hannah Babalola of Nigeria is the fastest woman.

... “Tony (Nogueira) told me about it when we raced at the Boston 10K,” Babalola said. “I said I’d give it a try. It’s a nice race. The people are lovely. I feel at home.”

There were just three wheelchair competitors last year and four in 2015. There hadn’t been more than one woman competitor in five years.

“It’s the racers who recruited other racers,” said race coordinator Deb Maxfield, a volunteer who works as the communication director of Maine Adaptive. “They are committed to raising the profile of wheelchair sports. It’s pretty exciting. We had four scratches in the past two weeks or we would have had the most ever (there were also 10 wheelchair racers in 2012).”

Beach to Beacon runner who helped fallen rival: ‘It’s just what we do’Rob Gomez, who held up Jesse Orach so he could cross the finish line first among the Maine men, says it was just an example of the spirit of the running community.

...“The stories should all be about Rob,” Orach said Sunday. “I’m speechless with what he did. Him and I were kind of vying for that number one Mainer spot, and for him to give that up for me is pretty remarkable.”

Orach, 23, had a sizable lead when he fell the first time, on the tar path just beyond sight of the finish line. Orach said that if he’d taken longer to collect himself right then, he might have been able to finish under his own power.

“But I was so focused on getting to the finish line I stumbled forward for maybe another 10 feet and fell down again,” Orach said. “I didn’t have enough left in the bank to stand up again. I felt him grab my shirt and pull me up.”

The 20th running of the event, which is the brainchild of 1984 Olympic women’s marathon champion and Cape Elizabeth native Joan Benoit Samuelson, once again featured an array of inspirational stories as the bar continues to be raised on the state’s most famous road race, a 6.2-mile course which meanders from Crescent Beach to Fort Williams.

This time around, a record-setting 6,879 runners from 18 countries, 43 states and more than 270 Maine cities and towns took part.

While one-time Greely High School standout Ben True wasn’t able to repeat as the men’s champion, he came pretty darn close.